- Provincial Indian university gets a genebank.
- Nutritionists go all ecological on us.
- But does that include taking into account human variation in taste perception? I’m betting no.
- The case against GM salmon.
- Going crazy in Austin’s market.
- Amaranth touted in Kenya. Sorghum and local millets unavailable for comment.
- Take a virtual trip around Nepal’s herbarium.
- Society for Ecological Restoration opens online Early Registration for the 4th World Conference on Ecological Restoration, to be held in August in Mérida, Mexico. You guys need a blogger?
NY Botanical Garden…er…garden in the news
The New York Botanical Garden is following its Edible Garden thing of a couple of years back with a Family Garden, aimed at schoolchildren. And it has made it to the network news. No information on whether the tykes are being brainwashed about heirlooms and sustainable agriculture. But I hope so.
LATER: And Michelle Obama gets in on the act too.
Nibbles: Whiskey fungus, Ecological imperialism, Value chains, Mexican blog, Mexican maize and gender
- Newly-named urban extremophile fungus survives on angels’ share.
- 1493. An oldie but goodie. And the book version is on its way.
- AVRDC lists the 6 principles of food value chain research.
- El cuexcomate, un nuevo blog en español, acerca de “agricultura, plantas útiles, etnobotánica, comida … desde México.” Bienvenido!
- Women more interested than men in better-tasting maize. Maybe El cuexcomate will comment.
Wanna talk to a coconut expert?
Via the Coconut Google Group, Coconutexperts.com
have announced that they are planning to interview Dr V. Arunachalam, Principal Scientist (Horticulture) and section-in-charge of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research institute in Goa. Dr Arunachalam has wide experience in horticulture, plantation crops, plant genetic resources, cropping systems, biotechnology and bioinformatics.
If you are interested in any specific topic or subject which requires clarifications or information, please send an email to admin-at-coconutexperts.com or coconutexperts-at-gmail.com. We will make sure to include your questions during our interview. We will publish the interview script in our Web site. The interview is tentatively scheduled on 8 June, 2011. Please make sure send your questions before 8th June.
An interesting initiative.
The mother-in-law and the Useful Tree Species for Africa
ICRAF have a nifty new tool out called “Useful Tree Species for Africa.” I’ve been playing around with it and I have to say it’s impressive. Not altogether easy to use, but impressive. If you’re at all into using native trees in Africa — for whatever reason or purpose — you’ll want to explore it. Here’s a taste of what it can do.
You download the kmz files from the ICRAF website and open them in Google Earth. 1 Then you think of somewhere you’re interested in. In my case, as usual in these situations, I chose the site of the mother-in-law’s spread above Limuru in Kenya. Useful Tree Species for Africa first tells you what sort of vegetation is potentially found there, according to White’s iconic Vegetation Map of Africa.
In this case, it’s “M19a Undifferentiated Afromontane vegetation (viii AMCE)”. What does that mean? Well, there’s a hyperlink which gives you more information on Mapping Unit 19a:
Crucially, this page, which opens in Google Earth, includes more hyperlinks, to four different species tables. Say you are interested in tree species found in this sort of vegetation that can support honey production. You click on the hyperlink labelled “Mapping unit 19a_uses.xls.” That in turn opens an Excel spreadsheet with a list of about 50 tree species and lots of different types of uses. You sort the species on “Bee fodder” and you get a shortlist of about 17 species, from Albizia gummifera to Syzygium guineense. Clicking yet again, this time on the species name, takes you to the PROTA page on the tree, with lots more information. Now, what would be really cool in due course would be a cross-link to ICRAF’s Tree Seed Suppliers Directory, so that you could work out where to get seed of your useful tree.
As I say, nifty. Lots of clicking, and opening of webpages, and of spreadsheets, and of more webpages, but you do end up with the information you want. If your query is place-based rather than species-based, that is. I don’t think the tool will let you start with a useful tree and work out where you can grow it, rather than start with a place and work out what can grow there. But let me play around with it a bit more. Maybe I’m wrong.